China's Alibaba in talks for Alipay stake: WSJBeijing (AFP) May 01, 2014 -
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is in talks with key shareholders to regain a formal stake in its online payment affiliate Alipay as it prepares a hotly anticipated IPO, a report said Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal cited "people familiar with the matter" for the report carried on its website.

The WSJ said that retaking the stake in Alipay "could significantly raise the future value of Alibaba" as it readies its initial public offering (IPO).

But the report cited the people as saying that even if the a deal over the stake in Alipay is clinched, it was unlikely to come before the IPO. A deal would also be subject to review by regulators in China, it noted.

The report described Alipay as "central to Alibaba's operations" as it handles its e-commerce payments similar to how PayPal does for eBay Inc.

Analysts say the forthcoming listing is expected to raise about $10 billion, which would make it the technology industry's largest IPO since Facebook's in 2012.

Alibaba operates China's most popular online shopping platform, Taobao, which features hundreds of millions of product listings.

Last week Alibaba and a private equity fund backed by its founder Jack Ma said they would pay $1.22 billion for a stake in China's leading online video platform Youku Tudou.

The move comes as Alibaba diversifies beyond its traditional online shopping business through a string of acquisitions.

Ma spun off Alipay from the group in 2011, the WSJ said, saying the move was needed for the payment company to get a license in line with Chinese government regulations to keep doing business.

US online giant eBay agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle allegations it colluded with other Silicon Valley technology firms not to "poach" each other's employees, officials said Thursday.

In deals struck with the US Department of Justice and the California attorney general's office, the online commerce titan also promised not to conspire with other companies to restrain recruiting or hiring of workers.

"The proposed settlement resolves the department's antitrust concerns and ensures that eBay will not engage in similar conduct in the future," US assistant attorney general Bill Baer said in a release.

The settlements need to be approved by a federal judge before being final.

San Jose, California-based eBay has agreed to pay restitution and fines totaling $3.75 million under terms of the settlement with the western state.

"California's technology sector is at its best when competition and creativity are allowed to thrive," state attorney general Kamala Harris said.

A portion of the fund is to be used to compensate people who worked for eBay or Intuit in California since 2005, with amounts to range from less than $150 to $10,000 each.

Harris filed suit against eBay in late 2012, accusing it of making a deal with the financial software firm not to recruit each other's workers. The "no-poach" deal took place between 2006 and 2009 and including a promise by eBay to not even hire Intuit employees, according to the state attorney general.

The DoJ lawsuit aimed at eBay also dates back to late 2012.

"eBay's agreement with Intuit served no purpose but to limit competition between the two firms for employees, distorting the labor market and causing employees to lose opportunities for better jobs and higher pay," Baer said.

Intuit is already subject to a consent decree similar to the one agreed to by eBay, according to the DoJ.

Tech giants Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel last month settled a lawsuit that charged they had colluded to hold salaries down by agreeing to not poach each others staff.

The four reached an agreement to settle all claims against them with lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case dating back to 2011, a statement from the San Francisco US district court said.

No details were given of the amounts, if any, in the settlement, and it did not cover three other industry leaders also sued: Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar.

The case built up strongly against them in January when the judge in the case, Lucy Koh, cited emails from late Apple founder Steve Jobs requesting in 2007 that Google stop recruiting Apple workers.

Facebook adds anonymous login, in move to build trustSan Francisco (AFP) April 30, 2014
Facebook moved Wednesday to bolster the trust of its more than one billion users by providing new controls on how much information is shared on the world's leading social network.
In a major shift away from the notion long preached by Facebook co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg of having a single known identity online, people will be able to use applications anonymously at Facebook.
Th ... read more

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